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Just to be clear. Selective austerity may be part of a response to a supply shock, as for example targeted rationing in war time, but widespread austerity was never a sane response to a demand shock - no matter how confidence-inspiring to economic actors exhibiting a rarefied train of thought.

Isn't it xenophobia to say China will most likely be the powder cag for the next recession? China has the largest savings for a rainy day; it has the most responsive organized system for mobilizing the masses to deal with calamity and economic challenges; it's government has a win-win attitude and is keenly reaching out to other countries for trade and economic development.In contrast, the US is the the diametric opposite. It has no savings and indeed has the largest debt, while still wildly printing money to hasten it's future depravity; the US is the most selfish egotistical nation - with schemes of I win you lose; the US is systematically losing the tech race while it's capitalistic owners deny investing in R&D and indeed have been for decades expediently buying from low cost producers offshore instead which hollowed out the US middle class. The US military defense establishment's track record of regime change and military exports is only bent on self profit at the expense of funding for education, healthcare and social programs for US citizens.Sorry to see Rogoff as just another biased ugly American.

"A global recession is a time for cooperation, not isolation." Agreeably incisive, but who will take Rogoff seriously on this? From childhood onward we have been encouraged to be competitive, not to be cooperative. Einstein was right: the world will not be a civilized place until the obsession with competitiveness is abandoned.

I guess you could say that the Trump administration has not "advocated" open-ended deficit spending -- they have simply indulged in it, running up debt on the national credit card like drunken sailors on the assumption that they will all be gone when the bill comes due.

Fair enough point. What I mean when I asked who advocates open ended deficit spending was what group of qualified economists advocates that. The answer is "none". In contrast there will of course always be politicians doing something daft, as you suggest, though so far the Trump deficit has not done any harm - in the form of excess inflation or excessive interest rate rises.

The bill became instantly due in the form of share buybacks and increasing inequality, given the targeting of the Trump deficit's benefits. The mythological long term bill (future higher taxes, around-the-corner inflation) will not become due while ever federal spending doesn't compete with the private sector for scarce resources, notably labor.

Yup, the virus is a great strategy to keep people locked up without even having to build any so-labelled: new confinement centers, detention facilities, prisons, non-opportunity zones, economic repression zones. Why do you think there is such a push for the automated transportation systems, funded by newest investment fund groups? New game plan is keep them where they are, especially in EU. Then, the strategy can change to: let's watch what happens to them then. Of course, them is NOT us.

VIRUS: keeps em where they're at, and shaking in their slippers, boots, bare-feet, etc. Give em some food according to your discretion, only when necessary. Again, do note, "them" is most definitely not "us".

Great maneuvering guys, your sure getting the systems fine-tuned. Cut out a little more slack, and you'll have it, down to a "t".

EU is not only looking at a pandemic, but the immediate NATO reality of guerrilla warfare at its borders, and more importantly within its borders. EU are being played by pros. Ever hear of the Weathermen, if not, you may want to review the 1970's, or 60's or, or, or.....ancient history,

Is the subtitle of The Curse of Cash, the wonderful world of enslaving the human race? Great, nobody wins, right? Except the author and the publisher. Another book written, another book sold, and more money in the bank for you and yours. That's a pretty good method. Kinda, sorta, depends what's between the covers, and on the white sheets. What's your bottom line, in other words? Cooperation is not what your message really is.

Don't you recognize claiming land? Don't you recognize take-away? You may want to play a real looky, takey game in person some time before it's too late.

While the 1970's feeling had a lot to do about reactions to the Eastern Front, the eastern front was and still is set comfortably to "just simmering", with the entire global audience "on hold". Where the pot is really starting to boil over is on the Western Front. So, the odds are the odds of more than a global recession have risen dramatically, much more than conventional pundits paid for by investors from institutional institutions care at all to acknowledge, and of course are presently ignoring, as usual. All narratives at situation normal. Coast is NOT clear. I repeat, coast is NOT clear. Looks like the waves don't have white caps on them either.

"In a telephone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayipp Erdogan urged Europe to "share the burden.""After we opened the doors, there were multiple calls saying, 'Close the doors,'" Erdogan said in a televised address to the nation. "I told them, 'It's done. It's finished. The doors are now open ... hundreds of thousands have crossed, soon it will be millions."Merkel said even if Ankara "currently does not feel sufficiently supported" by Europe, " ... it is wholly unacceptable to then take this out on refugees.""

EU must protect, guard and actively engage to protect not only its borders, but the citizens that are attempting to survive on a day-to-day basis, with or without a lousy economy. If the EU does not do that protection engagement, which can have dire effects for many, the EU will no longer survive. That is the real game plan that is the WISHFUL THINKING of the millions presently actively engaged in overt negative behavioral physically exhibited actions. Is that an appropriate bit of jargon for those not really looking at the reality on the beaches of the EU? What are those people really doing for EU, and to EU? Who is obligated to provide what if anything for who? What are their obligations to EU? Better examine the textbooks on co-dependent enabling.

Who really benefits from that process?Taqiya applied succesfully from deliberate strategized intent and well funded group-thinking.Just who is doing what for who?

Sukh’s Thoughts: Any supply shortage will be temporary, as we live in a much more service-based economy and with overcapacity being a greater problem than scarcity.

At least, that is the reality in the developed world, with the U.S. and Canada being a lot better positioned than Europe and Japan because they have much more in the way of natural resource wealth per capita.

China will have a massive financial crisis, but it will come out of it as the leader of a new developing-world globalization.

We have been hearing this tune for some decades now. Remember when a surging Soviet Union (from 1945-1970s) was supposed to overtake the West--and the U.S. in partivular)? Or Asia was going to overtake the West based on Japan's example (1960-1980s)(which was funny since post-Meiji Japan always preferred the company of the West to any Asian powers) or the Asian Tigers (1990s) or China (2004-2019)? And we have lately heard that India is really going to crash all the gates (2012-present)? In the age of global capitalism, its easy to "catch-up" but very very hard to overtake the leader.

Of course, but what is the longest you have ever gone with food? If you are elderly, how long can you go without medicine? A day is a problem, a week is terrible, a month is a catastrophe. Remember that those with foresight stockpile and opportunists buy up entire stocks, seeking to resell them for double, doubling the effect of shortages, especially for those without savings.

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Mass protests over racial injustice, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a sharp economic downturn have plunged the United States into its deepest crisis in decades. Will the public embrace radical, systemic reforms, or will the specter of civil disorder provoke a conservative backlash?

For democratic countries like the United States, the COVID-19 crisis has opened up four possible political and socioeconomic trajectories. But only one path forward leads to a destination that most people would want to reach.

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